Heroes Never Die
by potatoslayer4
Summary: Winston has been working hard to rebuild Overwatch. He follows a lead on a masked vigilante who may be worth recruiting. What he finds is much more than he bargained for. No pairings or dumb stuff. Just Winston reuniting with an old friend. One shot.


Winston sighed to himself as he studied his computer screen in great detail late at night. The other agents had gone to bed and he was the only one up. He thought back to the day he recalled the agents to active duty. Of the 50 something agents he had on call, around 20 had responded to his summons. The others were likely out of contact, had deliberately ignored Winston's call, or had already been assassinated by Reaper and his goons. Seven had immediately dropped what they were doing and came to Watchpoint Gibraltar: Tracer, Genji, Mercy, Torbjorn, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, and Pharah. The last 2 were a surprise. Pharah had apparently held onto her mother's old Overwatch commlink and Reinhardt came in with Torbjorn. Reinhardt was too old to be an Overwatch agent when the organization was disbanded, and the years since then haven't made him any quicker, but beggars can't be choosers. The reunion was short-lived as the agents realized their position was compromised. The decision was made to abandon Watchpoint Gibraltar in favor of a secret Blackwatch base hidden in the Swiss Alps. The remaining agents met them there. Overwatch had been reborn, with Winston at the helm. They were still small and weak, but they had been working hard to expand their numbers to operational levels. The new Overwatch had three mandates: intervene and put a stop to the Second Omnic Crisis in Russia (quietly if at all possible), pursue and eliminate the terrorist organization, Talon, and find out what really happened on that fateful day at Geneva headquarters, when they lost both their leaders and 200 of their best agents and support personnel. No one had survived the explosion. The remaining agents had been off site at the time, on assignment or deployed elsewhere. Winston was in the middle of a joint project with NASA's JPL, Tracer was chasing arms dealers in Mumbai, and so on. Some sinister force had been at work in the United Nations, and the investigation into the explosion had been swept under the rug. Once they had been settled in, Winston called everyone together to choose a new Commander, but they would have none of it. Winston had made the Recall order, so Winston should take responsibility. Needless to say Winston was uncomfortable with the prospect of leadership, but Mercy and Torbjorn had been incredibly helpful and often gave Winston advice on how best to deal with situations. Winston was mostly upset that the new Overwatch looked so different from the old Overwatch.

Winston was now studying a dossier on some vigilante who was active in South America. Overwatch had been looking into Los Muertos, a drug cartel with ties to Talon. As a result, they had found out about the man who had become a thorn in their side. The locals called him Soldier 76. Overwatch knew he was American and had been active in the years since Overwatch collapsed, but other than that he was a ghost. One thing that was clear is that he seemed to have a grudge against Talon. Every lead Overwatch had found regarding Talon had been accompanied by sightings of the soldier. Winston was intrigued. If this man was an enemy of Talon, he may be a useful ally. However, Winston found something eerily familiar about him. Something about the grainy photo of the soldier in the dossier gave Winston a slight case of Deja Veu. He shrugged. If Winston knew this man, he would've remembered.

Winston spotted the sun creeping over the horizon from the cockpit of the sky carrier as he shot over the Atlantic towards Columbia. Intel had revealed the location of an arms deal going down between Los Muertos and an unknown contractor. The deal may be a lead towards Talon, but Winston was really banking on seeing Soldier 76 crash the party. Winston would set down in the countryside and wait until nightfall.

Winston had settled into his spot on the roof of a warehouse in an abandoned part of town. Finding the location of the meet was difficult, but finding a suitable hiding place for an eight hundred pounds gorilla was a real chore. He had managed, however, and his patience was about to pay off as two cars with tinted windows drove in from different directions. Two people exited each car and began to converse quietly. Winston tried to listen in, but was distracted by a blue and white blur that was sneaking towards the four men. Winston immediately recognized him as the soldier from the photo. He watched closely as Soldier 76 got in close to the four without being seen and listened to their conversation. After a few minutes of listening, the four men split and went to their respective vehicles. One pulled out four large crates while the other pulled out a briefcase. The crates were set down in the middle and the money was counted. Just as the transaction was about to be completed, the soldier made his move. He sprinted out of cover and blew up the crates with his triple rocket attack. He then began laying suppressing fire on the four men. Two were gunned down immediately, but the others were able to enter cover behind their vehicle.

Winston's eyes widened as far as they would go. He had seen that fighting before, that footwork, that attack, that weapon. It was very similar, nay, identical to the fighting style of a certain man he once called Commander. It couldn't be. He was dead. They held a memorial and everything. Winston's brain wouldn't allow him to believe what he was seeing, but what he was seeing pointed to one irrefutable truth he had never thought about until now.

We never found his body.

They never did prove he was dead. But if the soldier is who he thinks he is, that simply raises a million new questions. However, the more Winston saw, the more he believed.

He's alive.

Winston was pulled out of his stupor by a sudden explosion. One of the goons had activated a grenade launcher turret that was targeting Soldier 76. He had been caught in the open with no cover in arms reach. Growling with a newfound determination, Winston threw his shield module at the soldier. The device landed at his feet and deployed just in time to stop the barrage of grenades hurling at him. Winston then jumped from the building and landed on the car, crushing it and the man within.

Winston stepped off the car and stared at the soldier, trying to prove his theory. But the man's mask gave nothing away. The soldier stared back. Not a sound could be heard as the two heroes sized each other up.

Then, the soldier turned and began to run in the other direction. Winston had half a mind to let him go, but that half wasn't currently in control of his mouth.

"Jack!"

The man stopped, a sudden stiffness coming over his body. He stood still for a couple of seconds. Winston began to wonder if he was wrong after all, and this man wasn't his leader. Just as Winston was about to apologize, the man began to mutter to himself.

"Damn monkey, always too smart for his own good."

The soldier then turned around. He took off his visor and his mask, revealing a face riddled with burn scars and deformities. If it were anyone else, he'd be unrecognizable, but Winston could tell immediately that it was the face of Jack Morrison. He gave a slight grin and, with an almost relaxed stance, greeted the gorilla.

"Hey big guy."

Winston gasped at the use of his old nickname. The one Jack always used because he was terrible at remembering names (one of the reasons everyone had codenames). Winston still couldn't quite believe it was really him. The man he had respected and admired since his childhood, and the man he'd had the proud privilege of serving under and befriending was once again standing in front of him. Winston did the only thing that made any sense to him.

"It's good to see you again Jack." He cried while pulling the soldier into a gorilla hug. Jack was wheezing from lack of air.

"Winston, let go." He finally managed to squeak out.

"Oh, sorry." Winston apologized as he put the soldier down.

"Winston, what are you doing here?" Jack asked.

"Tracking down Talon. They've been targeting former Overwatch agents and we decided to go after them. From what I can see you've been doing the same thing."

"OK, first off. Who's 'we'?". Jack inquired.

"Overwatch" Winston replied. "I reformed it in secret after the crisis began in Russia."

"That's illegal and you know it." Jack replied, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"I know, but Talon is still a threat and there are still bad things happening and the world needs Overwatch more than ever!" Winston retorted.

"Is that the people's opinion, or yours?" Jack asked. He always knew Winston better than anyone. Winston sighed.

"They tore our family apart." He murmured.

"I know big guy." Jack responded. "But overwatch was never about us and you know it."

"I know. But I just want things back to the way they were. You could come back with me. You could be one of us again. You could lead us again." Winston pleaded. Jack shook his head.

"You can't bring back the past, Winston. It's safer if I stay away for now. And even if I were to come back." He put his hand on Winston's shoulder. "It wouldn't be as leader. This is your rodeo now. You need to make your own mistakes."

"We could really use your help."

"From what I can tell, Overwatch is in good hands." He then turned to leave. Winston had one more question to ask though.

"Jack, what happened in Geneva?" Jack's face fell and he lightly touched the scare on his cheek.

"We were betrayed." He said, as if the words themselves brought a memory of pain greater than any Winston had ever known. "Blackwatch."

"Reyes!" Winston growled, letting his animal nature get the better of him. That slimy bastard! That was how Overwatch got framed for all those disasters. Blackwatch was ruining Overwatch's reputation from the shadows.

"Dark forces are at work in the world right now. You'll need to watch your backs if Overwatch is to survive." Jack said as he walked away.

"Jack, wait! One more thing!" As he turned around, Winston threw his commlink to Jack, who caught it in one hand.

"If you ever need help or support, Overwatch has your back." Jack smiled as he pocketed the comm device and put his mask back on.

"Take care of yourself big guy."

"Take care of yourself old man."

As the two heroes went their separate ways, the future seemed to glow a little brighter for both of them. With both Overwatch and Soldier 76 on the case, Talon doesn't stand a chance.


End file.
